I run roller cams all the time. The topic was why the OE’s went to them. It was because the government decided that catalytic converters would save the world, but the phosphorus and zinc coat the catalyst and kill it. So...to fix that folly the answer was a reduction in both of those components. And when you do that, you need to run a roller lifter because the flat lifters won’t survive.
That has nothing to do with roller cams in non OE appilcations. It’s great trying to have a conversation with people who twist everything around (not pointing at you RRR) and turn a topic about OE’s and why they did something and making it look like I said roller cams have no place in anything. It’s the way these people think they win.
The OE’s didn’t go to roller lifters for “area under the curve” or because they wanted to extend engine life. They didn’t care about engine life because once the warranty is up the OE’s don’t give a damn about anything. They did the roller lifter because they were forced into it.
My next engine (sadly) will have roller lifters, unless by some stroke of luck I find a set of mushroom lifters that don’t cost about what a good set of rollers cost. I’d rather rune the mushroom lifters because I want to net somewhere around .720ish lift on that engine and no way can you do that on a .904 lifter and expect it to live.
So unless a miracle happens that engine will get roller lifters and all the crapola that that requires.